Virgin Islands' Community Supported Agriculture

Get a 3/4 bushel box every week of certified organic produce in St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. St. Croix. Summer shares now available for all three islands. Read newsletters from past seasons below, and click below to register for your CSA!

Celebration of Seasons

WOW! We are officially at the halfway-point of our CSA, and there is still so much more to come. Already we are planning out our next season, projected to start May 30. We want you to know first as you hear about our upcoming plans that you pioneering CSA members will have first option to buy in to the spring/summer season. Soon, we will release the deadlines for the next season and the exciting crops that are in the pipeline for summer, especially those fruits already budding. The VI food revolution is ON, and you are making it happen.I want to inform you of what our growing food community is up to, because there is a lot going on you can take part in, so add these to your calendar.April 7 -Guest Chef Slow Down Dinner at Ridge to Reef Farm. 6 creative courses prepared by a top chef in the territory (TBA) on the farmhouse porch.April 21 -Virgin Gourmet launch event and reggae concert. The television series presents its first syndicated show that will air on TEMPO, featuring the star Chef Theo Gumbs and R2R Farm. Artist Niyorah and friends will be performing a solar show at the Ridge to Reef Community Center, during the week of the St. Croix Food and Wine Experience!April 28 - Pig Roast and acoustic music with Big Guns Rockat R2R Farm. Local food and music combine again for a seasonal outdoor feast, with local food sourced from the farm and other producers from St. Croix.May 25-38 - Organic Yoga Retreat - Yoga and Slow Food combined. CSA members including Yogi Marshan Sam and community organizer Sarah Haynes bring you our first ever Yoga retreat on the peaceful farm.And don't forget, there is a standing invitation for you to take a farm stay and/or volunteer with us. Come out and visit YOUR farm. This year has been dedicated to the spirit of Ellen Nettles. She had a passion for promoting local food, and that has been a large part of our success up to this point. We think she would be proud. Above, you see the sunflowers we planted with her father Jim in her memory. As we move forward, we carry with us the passion and dedication of Ellen and all those many hands that have created the community basket we are able to share today.In Appreciation, -Nate Olive, Director

Sugar Cane, a heritage crop for the Virgin Islands

WTF (What's That Food)? This week's strange food item: Sugar CaneYes, it's another one of the fantastic dicot grasses AGAIN! They are so weird. This one is a special one, especially here in the Virgin Islands. Sugar Cane, in the genus Saccharum, refers to over 35 different species. Did you know sugar cane is the world's leading crop, even more than corn?No other crop has changed the face of the USVI like this one. Treated like currency, it was the gold or oil of the day when St. Croix was the top cane producer in the region. Not a lot of people know it, but because St. Croix does not get too much rain and has flat lands(which waters down the sugar), it became the best place to grow the highest sugar concentrated cane in the eastern Caribbean. Of course, it's value led to the brutal Danish slave trade and the nearly complete deforestation of the Virgin Islands. In the process of hundreds of years of one crop, the USVI lost topsoil, and even the running waters that gave St. Croix it's Taino name, Ay Ay, which means "the river," now just an ancestral memory.Today, we are using sugar cane to plant breaks in our living hillside terraces. It is an easy crop to grow here, requiring no additional irrigation and when grown sustainably, and a real treat from a long day in the field. Once king, it is now a valuable member of the more diverse food village. It reminds us of the permaculture principle: Diversity = Stability How to use it:Sugar cane can be processed until raw sugar, crushed to make a raw simple sugar fluid for adding into cooking (cut into small chunks if you are contemplating the blender), or just peeled, quartered, and chewed for a ready-to-eat treat. Of course, you could make rum too, but that is a different story!

Jacob on our peaceful farm with Sugar the goat.

Meet the Farmer...Jacob Collums, farm apprenticeSurrounded by cows, pigs, horses, chickens, ducks, geese and quails he gained his first farming experiences. On his father’s hobby farm in Oklahoma he helped out on the fields and figured that he really liked what he was doing there. During college he spent time on his teammate’s cattle ranch and when he ended up with a Master of Biology last year, his desire was to become fully involved in organic farming in Colorado. However, this was before he went on a vacation to Jamaica and got infected with the love for the Caribbean.Following his heart, he started to search online and found our website. He directly applied and got an email from Nate a few days later. One week later he was sweating in the fields with us and cuddling “Sugar” our runt baby goat (in the beginning of January). Since that time Right now his goal is to do the best and as much as he can for the farm. “Helping this farm grow is helping myself grow at the same time and I’ll see where it will take me.” Maybe one day he will leave this “place of serenity and peacefulness” and share his experiences on his own farm back home with the rest of his family. We appreciate all the contributions of Jacob, and essential person of the CSA and much more!

"From the Fields"All the rain we’ve been getting has certainly been beneficial in one way: the plants are taking off! The excess moisture seeps into the soil and increases the plants ability to absorb minerals and nutrients. Our garden area called Gaia Trellis, where we have several beds of crops is producing heavily now. Greens onions, collards, swiss chard, radishes, chayote, arugula, bok choy and lettuce wave happily in the light breezes that blow down the alleys. These long beds were done in a ‘french intensive’ method of planting densely to maximize space use.The Gaia trellis gardens are also beautiful example of how the farm uses agroforestry practices to create microclimates optimal to growing conditions. Fruit or nut trees strategically planted along crop beds bring coolness to the intensity of the sun, give a crop themselves, and can even contribute to the health of the soil. Common trees we use in agroforestry include coconut and banana palms, mango, papaya, meringa, Malabar chestnut, and ylang ylang.~ Julia, R2R Graduate, Intern

An Appreciation of Life

Paradise is never easy. This is true especially on a farm, where we are always dealing with the cycles and stages of life. Many of the plants we raise are not from here, so we have to hold their hands the entire way to the harvest bag. When you consider that most Virgin Islanders have a stateside taste preference for crops that were bred and developed for temperate environments, we really have our work cut out for us on these islands. Fortunately, the CSA allows us to introduce you to crops that may be unfamiliar but are no less tasty and actually usually more nutritive. Not only are many of the crops out of place, but so are most of the "wild" animals. Did you know that the largest native terrestrial mammal in the USVI is a bat? A few steps up from that are the mongoose dem, brought in hundreds of years ago to control those little critters in between (you know, the one chewing on your electrical system as you read this). They also like to chew on our chickens, and seem to prefer our eggs as a premier delicacy. And then there is Odocoileus virginianus, the deer.We more often see the signs of the deer than the deer itself: Like those beans you were supposed to get -now beanless, leafless stems. The cassava that now are little nubs in the ground. The cinnamon trees we tried but were munched like candy. They eat everything they can. It can be the most frustrating thing as a farmer to see a crop wiped out overnight. We even sometimes invent new curse words sent out like arrows.So, what was I going to do the other day, when, while mowing on our new CSA tractor implement I came across a young fawn trapped in vines alongside the road. Of course the beans came across my mind, but compassion won out. After all, they are our brothers and sisters. Let her go, and she'll eat the crops one day, I thought. But I had to give her a chance to prove me wrong. So with the help of Julia we removed about 120 ticks and gave her water before putting her on the side of the road as the deer could not even stand up on her own. We felt proud. We did a good thing. It even got plastered on Facebook before I got home. "Awww!"It was hours later, when I went back to check on the deer to see if she had went on her way, that I saw a wild dog run out from the bush. I know that was not a good sign. I found her warm, limp, headless body in the same spot as I left her. I made sure that every part left was used in honor and appreciation. It was a hard loss that left me questioning my heart, but all in a typically standard unpredictable day of farming. We bring forth and take away life every day. But we are fortunate to have life at all, on this absolute miracle of a planet. The feeling reminds me of my teachers' Apache teacher, Stalking Wolf, who said about losing a deer, "When you feel the same way for a single blade of grass that is ripped from the earth, only then will you begin to understand the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things."Life comes and goes like the tides. We give thanks for it and all of creation. Paradise may not be easy. But is worth being.Mahalo, -Nate Olive, Director

A tropical aromatic pleasure & source of vitamins

WTF (What's That Food)? This week's strange food item: LemongrassA native of Malaysia and India, lemongrass, or Cymbopogon, is firmly rooted in the traditional and fusion cuisine found in the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. We often don't think of grass as a food, but one sniff of lemongrass reminds us of the wide range of medicinal and culinary uses. Remember, bananas and bamboo are grasses too, so join us in appreciation of this monocot treasure!No morning in the USVI would be complete without bush tea. Lemongrass is a favorite ingredient for it's energetic quality. Blend it and strain along with a hefty bunch of guinea grass, and you have the famous chlorophyll drink extremely popular in Rastafarian diets that is anti-carcinagenic, anti-oxidant, and it helps build red blood cells with a flush of available vitamin K, C, folic acid, protein, iron, and calcium.

How to use it:Lemongrass, in nearly every application, is pounded and/or roughed up to break the cell walls of the plant, thus releasing the juices easily discernible by the strong, crisp clean aroma (that mosquitos abhor!). One favorite use of ours is a Thai lemongrass soup. You can use the stalks or the leafy tops. It goes great with the peppers in this week's bag! hint, hint

Matt taking the conscious decision...

Meet the Farmer...Matt Johnson, farm full-time workerUp from Hampton, Virginia, Matt had little exposure to farming. Instead, he grew up fishing with family and friends along the Chesapeake Bay which shaped a love for the water (especially salt water).

This passion for the ocean and desire to explore marine life is what brought him down to the Caribbean over 2 years ago. After sailing over 3,000 miles throughout the Lesser Antilles he came to visit the farm and made the decision to stay on St. Croix staring into our fire ball last August. Looking back now he says: "Sometimes it’s hard to believe how I got here.”

Matt became a farm friend and family member before he even thought about getting his hands dirty. He was drawn to us by a young, beautiful girl that opened his eyes to a whole new world of planting, weeding, preparing beds and the lifestyle that comes with being part of Ridge to Reef farm. His admiration for the soil developed quickly and after the first of the year, he came to the farm with the intention to help in the fields for a week. “That week mysteriously turned into 3 months” and who knows if he will ever leave this valley after all.

“I enjoy almost everything about living up in the rain forest. It is a work-hard-play-hard situation. We put in solid hours sun up to sun down and then come together for great company in the community center every night. One really has to make the conscious decision sometimes to simply sit, observe, breathe, and reflect on the great life we live up here. There is always something amazing going on, and it has certainly been a pleasure to get to know the incredible people that the farm attracts through either educational programs, volunteers, farm stays and the local friends of Ridge to Reef. After finishing a degree in criminal justice, time overseas with the Army and working as a sailor I am now proud to say that I am farming every day and I’m very pleased with life right now.“

"Care for the earth, care for the people & share fairly"The Principles that our work is based on...

Prepare the field, put food in the ground and harvest. Easy, no? At Ridge to Reef Farm we put a lot more thoughts into the food production process. We base our work as best as we can on Permaculture Principles.So, let us give you a short introduction and hopefully inspire you to read up on it and integrate it into your personal lives. Care for the earth, care for the people and fair share are the three ethics that build the foundation for permaculture design. “Permaculture is a global movement that started in Australia, under the leadership of Bill Mollison who systematically studied ecological systems and showed how we can adopt the principles of nature to creating sustainable societies. In the beginning permaculture meant- permanent agriculture. Now it has evolved to mean- permanent culture.Permaculture is a design system based on the three ethics and principles mentioned above which can be used to establish, design, manage and improve all efforts made by individuals, households and communities towards a sustainable future.

The so-called permaculture flower is a systematic diagram of how we can achieve sustainability by altering the specific areas of our lives."

These two images are great for giving you a brief overview. Good sources to fully understand and to receive ideas on how to implement Permaculture in your life though, are books by Bill Mollison or Sepp Holzer (two of the most well-established Permaculture experts in the world).Additionally you can take part in one of our Permaculture workshops that are offered several times a year. Either participate on a Permaculture week-end and or in the several-week-long Ridge to Reef Beneficial Farmer Training Programs.Ridge to Reef Farm loves to share its knowledge.

recommended by Rita LutchmeesinghIntroduction: Sojne Phool is used in making dishes different in part of India, it tastes somewhat similar to wild mushrooms. This Bengali recipe is made with mustard paste and cooked in a covered potSojne Phool Recipe:Preparation time 20 minutesCooking time 10 minutesDifficulty level: EasyYou need:Sajne Phool plucked (2 cups)One large Potato( or try green banana): Diced into small cubesOne medium Tomato, choppedMustard Oil: 2 tbps3 to 4 Whole Green Chilli, slit halfwayMustard Paste- 2tbspTurmeric Powder- 1 tspRed Chilli Powder-1/2 tspSugar ½ tspSalt to taste100 ml WaterDirections:1. Pluck the Sojne Phool or the Moringa flowers from its stalk carefully. Make sure to remove all stalks otherwise it will add a pungent and bitter taste. 2. Wash the flowers thoroughly and keep aside.3. In a Kadai (pot), put all ingredients except water and fold well. Note that this should be done even before heating the Kadai on the burner. 4. Now bring the Kadai (pot) with the mixture on a gas top, allow it to heat it up, stir well.5. Cover the Kadai with a lid and slow down the heat, cook for 10 minutes. Check in between and add little water if necessary to prevent burning at the bottom. (Ideally it should be cooked without adding water.)6. Check seasoning when the flowers look tender and cooked well.7. Serve with Rice and Daal (lentils, peas or beans).

Thanks to the pre-pay model of the CSA, we all are going to get a lot more food . The past two weeks we have been able to spend $700 on hydrologic repairs to our front end-loader, which we have been using to repair the roads needed for delivery and open up some bushed-in garden areas. All of the inherited equipment here is old and well used, and some is more fit for the scrapyard than the crop field. so we are rebuilding and fixing our tractor attachment fleet with the flush of funds among other critical improvements.Last week, we purchased an $1,900 bush cutter, which hooks up to the back of the tractor and has already enabled us to open up 2 additional acres for vegetable production, in a matter of hours! This is so important, since it saves our staff's valuable time (and backs) so we can be doing more seeding and harvesting than weed control. It also gives us an abundance of mulch from the tall guinea grass that can grow up to 6 inches in a week! This mulch will be used to cover bare soil around plants, while retaining moisture around the plant and suppressing weeds. Not to mention it adds in organic matter, which is the key to growing organic food!Not only are tractor parts and fuel expensive to keep and maintain, but insurance packs a wallop too. Our bill due this month was over $5000 for the year, and without the CSA, I have no idea how we could have paid our first installment. Land rental alone is one of our largest expenses!This week we are going to spend around $500 for new hand tools and safety equipment for the chainsaw. They will come immediately useful in the Sierra Club volunteer vacation which starts on Saturday. During their stay of 2 weeks we can get all that newly cut grass gathered and spread around our acres of new plantings with their help. You are invited to help too.Ridge to Reef Farm is a completely customer-supported, family owned farm. We currently have no government funding for food production. Our only investors are you, our other customers with www.vi.loccallygrown.net, and our donation dinners. The tourism market also brings in funds with our educational advocacy programs. The Virgin Islands CSA is more than a name. You are really supporting your local organic farmers. We hope that the support we offer in return to you each week in the form of healthy food is well received and enjoyed by your body, mind, and spirit. Without you, well, we'd be lost up to our necks in grass! In good medicine,Nate, Farm DirectorP.S. It was great to see CSA members spend some time at the farm this week. Remember shareholders, you all are always welcome here to enjoy YOUR farm.

Tatsoi: high in beta-carotene and Vitamins A, C, and K; also contains calcium, potassium, phosphorous and iron.

WTF (What's That Food)? This week's strange food item: TatsoiTatsoi is a member of the Brassica rapa family and commonly known as spoon mustard, spinach mustard and rosette bok choy. It is native to China and has been cultivated in Japan for centuries. This Chinese cabbage is considered an ancient green.

How to use it:Mix with lettuces and other greens and drizzle with dressing or vinaigrette. Steam, wilt, lightly stir fry or sauté and serve as an accompaniment to chicken, fish, or other proteins. You can also toss it in soups for flavor and texture at the end of the cooking period or use it as a garnish.We recommend to use it quickly and refrigerate it.

Julia, during the first CSA harvest

Meet the Farmer...Julia comes to the farm from the northeastern US where she grew in the quaint colonial neighborhood of Spring Glen in Hamden, CT. As a girl, between playing soccer and baseball with her brothers and catching frogs in Johnson’s Pond, she had dreams of being a marine biologist.

Since a young age she has had a special connection with nature, in particular plants. “Her eyes sparkled when she talks about plants,” says Shelli Brin, who also lives and works on the farm. Besides spending time taking care of plants, Julia enjoys going for long walks around the property’s trails listening to the wind.

After attending the University of Vermont, Julia worked on a medicinal herb farm in the ‘northeast kingdom,’ a very beautiful part of the state. There, she discovered her love for agriculture and sustainable systems within the framework of local culture. Because she is of French heritage, born of a French father and American mother, quality of food and quality of life are very important to her. On the farm, she frequently cooks, creates new recipes, and delights in the flavors and aromas of fresh, organic foods.

She has goals of one day owning and operating her own small herbal business, using wild plant medicines as well as cultivated ones. In her spare time she likes to run, explore, read, sing and write poetry.http://thejuliadventures.blogspot.com/

From the field...The fields have been a busy place since our CSA began, and now that we are about a quarter way into the season, the pace has not slowed a bit! Farm intern Jacob and Jess and part-time worker Matt have been putting in some long, dedicated hours weeding and preparing new beds, planting new seeds and transplanting hundreds of small potted vegetables and herbs into the ground.Our first ripe and juicy tomato came in on Saturday and was shared among the farm staff. More are ripening every day! Soon, the staked tomato plants will be heavy with the round, reddish fruits. Did you know tomatoes are technically a fruit? [and technically classified as berries, Ed.] This is because, like fruits, tomatoes develop from the ovary in the base of the flower and also contain the plants’ seeds (like raspberries and blueberries). Besides tomatos, the eggplants are bearing as well. Each little eggplant is beginning to plump out its dark, silky body.We’ve also recently seeded more bok choy, tatsoi, dill, green onions, squash, sunflower seeds. The cucumbers we had planted in a succession at the beginning of the CSA season have unfortunately been fighting a losing battle with a pesty green worm that has been chomping down vigorously on the plants leaves. Even with an organic fertilizer and natural pesticide, we’ve been unable to fight mother nature on this one. You win some, you lose some. Until next time!

Tatsoi/Arugula/ Basil Pestoby Chef BrianYou need:WalnutsTatsoi/Arugula/ BasilGarlicOnionSalt & Pepper (& Chili powder)Directions:1. Roast the walnuts in oil or butter2. Use mortar and pestel to grind/stomp tatsoi/ arugula/ basil, roasted walnuts, garlic and onion until you get a smooth paste.3. We suggest to enjoy it on bread, noodles, pizza or on the side of a salad.

A Village of EatingSlow is Fast in the Food World

I remember just 10 years ago you'd be hard pressed to find a cucumber or carrot on St. Croix that wasn't shipped from 2000 miles away or grown locally but sprayed with anything that would keep the worms at bay. Thankfully, times are changing fast. The food desert I remember is slowly being replaced day by day by more and more ways to get local and sustainably grown food, but it's not only the farmers who deserve credit for this fertile ground. Enlightened restaurants, markets, chefs, transporters, and home consumers are the links in the chain that make it flow, to name a few.Here at Ridge to Reef Farm we transformed the former "Creque Slow Down Dinner Experience" into a guest chef series, which we now affectionally call Guest Chef Slow Down Dinners. Originally inspired by the global Slow Food movement, the evolution of this dinner series now includes appearances from the top chefs in the region, such as Brian Wisbauer, Tahirah Abubakr, and Theo Gumbs, as they meet our seasonal selections of organic food. The monthly dinner series here was listed as a top 25 thing to do in the Caribbean by ISLANDS Magazine. Our local food partner Grow VI with Barefoot Bhudda has made an annual event with their own version.No other place that I know of routinely has as many chefs, farmers, home consumers, and other key players all together to honor and celebrate food to such a peak. Ever since R2R opened the farm gate to all these special people at once, I have learned more about food than I ever expected. It's sort of like our laboratory to see just how far we can take a pumpkin or a lamb or a miracle fruit into a realm beyond words, where texture, taste, and spirits can take us to new places.Whether it be the next R2R Farm Guest Chef Slow Down Dinner on April 7th, a restaurant that serves local food, or around your own table at home, please join me in raising your glass for the people who make up the supply chain of slow food in the USVI. When you embrace the slowness of food, the Founder of Slow Food International Carlo Petrini said, "You reassess the elements of consumer culture, and in rural knowledge, you discover surprisingly simple solutions to problems which speed has made complex and apparently insoluble." It sounds like something we all need to me. What do you think?In good, slow medicine,

Nate Olive, Farm Director

source: http://www.miracletrees.org/

WTF (What's That Food)? This week's strange food item: Moringa"Moringa: a supermarket on a treeImagine a tree in your backyard that will meet most of your nutritional needs, purify your water and take care of you medicinally?"

Moringa Flowers: A source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

How to use Moringa flowers:

Moringa oleifera flowers are considered a delicacy in many places.They are often mixed into other foods. You can mix the Moringa flowers in salads or fry the flowers in Moringa oil and eat the fried Moringa oleifera flowers as a snack. Especially popular is Moringa oleifera tea. The flowers sit in hot water for at least five minutes to let the distinctive flavor brew. The Moringa flowers tea is considered to have nutritional benefits and to be a powerful medicine.

For more info on Moringa check out the following video:

Nadja with our cute little friend Sugar

Meet the Farmer...Nadja Hofmann, farm apprenticeMy days at Ridge to Reef Farm as an apprentice are numbered. During the last six months I have been receiving insights into all the different parts that the farm is involved in. I have been out in the fields, represented the farm at locally grown market, served at Guest Chef Slow Down Dinners and looked behind the scene of managing such a creative farm business.I have seen the slow season where only three people lived on the farm and am still experiencing the season full of programs with a growing number of staff. Most of all, I had the chance to experience a community the whole six months, no matter how many people shared this valley at a time. I experienced how supportive, understanding and loving my new home is. The fact that money is not the most important matter at the farm but the well-being of the people that work here and live around us has been proven to me several times. I cannot tell how happy I am that such a place exists in a world where materialistic point of views seem to prevail and how glad I am that I have found a home and a family here.I hope everyone of you can feel the love that goes into the produce you are receiving every week, and I hope you will have the opportunity to come and meet your farmers one day to get a glimpse of the world that we are living in.You might be able to sign up for language classes with the sheep, goats, chickens or if you are really lucky with our donkey Pipen. I took all of their classes :-)

Slow Time before the dinner

From the field...Hold up! Wait a second! Come on over here! And slooow dowwwn! What am I talking about? Ridge to Reef farm’s Guest Chef ‘Slow Down Dinners’ of course. Usually twice monthly we invite the community to our farm for a 5 course chef-prepared meal using primarily produce from our land. The different backgrounds of the chefs are as diversified as their cooking styles and are an attraction in themselves.

On a typical Slow Down Dinner day the chefs arrive early in the day to scope out what ingredients they can use. With ease and flow, chefs set to work around noon chopping, dicing, soaking, and preparing the many colorful ingredients on the kitchen counter. When finally, the evening rolls into the valley, 20 to 50 guests make their way to the majestic mahogany community center for a twilight candle-lit setting.

Last week was my third slowdown dinner and though the tastes were dramatically different from the previous ones, the ambiance was similar. After the plates are set and the flowers arranged on the tables, it is time to relax and socialize. I really enjoy the conversations over good food with people I have never met before and I've really come to appreciate the community that the farm draws around itself. What a merry time it is!~ Julia Meurice, former R2R student